1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to relatively thick sheetstock (or cardstock) and, more particularly, to sheetstock which is adapted to be fed into laser or ink jet printer and copying machines.
2. Background and Description of the Related Art
Ink jet and laser printers and copying machines are normally equipped with automatic paper feeders that remove individual sheets from a tray and feed them into the printer. Heavy sheetstock (or cardstock), which is relatively inflexible, cannot be fed into ink jet and laser printers using common automatic paper feeders. Accordingly, printing jobs which require heavy sheetstock, such as business cards, party invitations and promotional Rolodex.TM.-type card file cards (which businesses give to their customers) must be taken to a print shop. This is both expensive and time consuming.
One proposed solution to this problem in the art is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,317 to Hickenbotham et al. The '317 patent discloses a method of modifying relatively thick sheetstock. The method entails reducing the stiffness of adjacent corners by scoring, slitting, die cutting or calendaring. However, this product has not come into general commercial use, presumably as a result of the additional manufacturing costs and other problems relating to the product. Further, the sheetstock disclosed in the '317 patent must be cut to the appropriate size after printing when used for the production of items, like business cards, which are smaller than the sheet itself.